Heaven's Doors . . . Wider than You Ever Believed! received the prestigious Illumination Book Awards Silver Medal in Theology from the thousands of Christian books published in the past year.

The book challenges many traditional beliefs about heaven and hell. It addresses Church teaching from the time of Christ till the present from a historical and Biblical perspective that the judges deemed "exemplary."

Winners were selected from publishers large and small, including HarperCollins, Zondervan, Oxford University Press, Faith Words, Thomas Nelson and Tyndale House Publishers.

Author George W. Sarris says the book exposes a 1,500-year-old myth about hell that began with a power-hungry Roman emperor, was supported by a highly respected but misinformed cleric, and has endured for centuries because it became the status quo. He says that for the first 500 years after Christ, Church leaders and laity believed that, ultimately, all the people God created will be in heaven.

"Hell is real," Sarris says, "but it doesn't last forever, and its purpose is to transform sinners, not torture them for all eternity. That's the only answer that's consistent with an all-loving, all-powerful God."

David Konstan, Professor of Classics at New York University and Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at Brown University says the book is "gracefully written, deeply thoughtful, and based on careful scholarship; it deserves the widest audience.”

Nigel G. Wright, Principal Spurgeon’s College London and Council Member of the Evangelical Alliance, UK says, "Evangelicals congratulate themselves on their willingness to submit to the final authority of scripture.  Yet they also have cherished beliefs that they defend to the hilt . . . Quite rightly, George Sarris insists that even these beliefs should be subjected to the test of scripture."

George W. Sarris is a popular author, speaker and performer who has spent a lifetime addressing Biblical and family issues throughout the U.S. He’s the narrator of Zondervan’s 2011 revision of The Holy Bible New International Version featured on BibleGateway.com and the creator of an award-winning series of children’s CDs that bring the Bible to life.